IT WAS NUCLEAR STRENGTH THAT WON THE COLD WAR AND CREATED THE NUCLEAR TRANQUILITY WE SEE TODAY

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER; The Weekly Standard, November 1, 1999, SECTION: COVER STORY; Pg. 21 HEADLINE: Arms Control: The End of an Illusion; The Cold War was won at Reykjavik. The Senate's defeat of the test ban treaty is Reykjavik II. // ln-acs-11-11-99

What brought about the nuclear tranquillity of today was victory in the Cold War. And crucial to that victory was the resistance of strong leaders to the siren song of arms control. Three of the great turning points in the Cold War were Senator Henry Jackson's holding up the SALT II treaty in the late 1970s (which would, if anything, have increased the gap between U.S. and Soviet nuclear capabilities); Reagan, Thatcher, and Kohl's facing down the nuclear freeze movement and deploying intermediate-range NATO weapons in Europe; and finally Reykjavik, where Ronald Reagan walked away from the most radical arms control deal in history to pursue nuclear safety not by treaty, but by unilateral military means.

USA NUCLEAR ARSENAL IS WHAT PRESERVES THE PEACE FOR THE USA AND ITS ALLIES

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER; The Weekly Standard, November 1, 1999, SECTION: COVER STORY; Pg. 21 HEADLINE: Arms Control: The End of an Illusion; The Cold War was won at Reykjavik. The Senate's defeat of the test ban treaty is Reykjavik II. // ln-acs-11-11-99

For those who claim not to want disarmament, the paradox is unanswerable: Either a test ban degrades nuclear arsenals and thus ushers in an era of nuclear disarmament, or it does not. If it does, then it is catastrophically dangerous to the United States, because our nuclear arsenal, the ultimate deterrent, is what preserves the safety of the United States and those allies that live under its nuclear umbrella.

PRESENCE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS DETERS WAR

Sir Michael Quinlan, Director of the Ditchley Foundation (UK), 1997 (The Washington Quarterly, Summer, "The Future of Nuclear Weapons in World Affairs," p.138)//TD

The absence of war between advanced states is a key success. We must seek to perpetuate it. Weapons are instrumental and secondary; the basic aim is to avoid war. Better a world with nuclear weapons but no major war than one with major war but no nuclear weapons (even if the latter were, as it is not, reliably feasible). We have to ask whether that "no-war" mindset is so entrenched that we could always count on it even if actual nuclear weapons were removed.

DETERRENCE IS THE ONLY WAY TO STOP AN APOCOLYPTIC WAR

Robert Joseph, dir. of center for counterproliferation research at the national defense university, 1997 The Washington Quarterly/summer, "Nuclear Deterrence and Regional Proliferators" p. 173 // ML

Those who promote the movment toward a nuclear-free world often see nuclear weapons as an evil in and of themselves; some even argue that the elimination of these weapons is a precondition for a peaceful international order. This, as Samuel Johnson once said of second marraiges, is the clear "triumph of hope over experience." The enduring lessons from World War II - particularly the need to avoid simplistic approaches which contributed to the most deadly conflict in our history - have again become blurred. Deterrence, rather than disarmament through denuclearization, is the basis for sound policy, as deterrence has worked in the past to save countless lives by making the prospect of war horrific.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO WORLD PEACE AND KEPT THE COLD WAR COLD

Nuclear weapons have made a major contribution to world peace. The cold war only remained cold because both the United States and the Soviet Union understood that any direct confrontation between them would likely escalate into a nuclear holocaust.

The American nuclear arsenal aids deterrence in hot spots like the Korean Peninsula, where there has been no real war for four decades. These arms may be useful one day in persuading a rogue state like Iran or Iraq not to attack one of its neighbors. Indeed, fear of American nuclear retaliation may well have deterred Saddam Hussein from using biological agents against allied forces during the gulf war.